I’m sure everyone has been to some kind of social function, often an extended family gathering, where the first few lines of conversation with someone you’ve not met before invariably include the following: name, relationship to instigator of gathering, relationship to other attendees, and so on. I’ve often thought that some sort of heads-up-display would come in handy, providing you with this vital information, to avoid those awkward first few minutes of a meeting.

To avoid the unfortunate problem of heads-up-displays clashing with wedding outfits, Andrew Enright and his wife Heather Samples provided their wedding guests with a wonderfully elegant illustration of the relationships between everyone attending, along with “teaser-text” about each guest. When Barry and I married last August, we only invited nine other people, all of whom were close family, so we didn’t need this sort of thing, but it’s a great idea for any kind of large social gathering, to act as an ice-breaker. Mapping relationships between people is not a new concept, but this is a really nice use of it.